all of a sudden passion suddenly

[annaswirls]

There is of course
the diamond sutra
Like a meteor, like darkness, as a flickering lamp, An illusion, like hoar-frost or a bubble, Like clouds, a flash of lightning, or a dream: So is all conditioned existence to be seen.

shine on
shine on
on
and then
off

whore frost
breaking bubbles
with frozen breath
lightning from fingertips
hair stands on end static illusions.

diamond sutures stitch wondues
wounds
cut glass rosary
twisted between toes

I tip across the coals
whore frost protects feet
from the burn

 

[Cerriwiden]

who is this
that walks on coals?
fire on fire
dust to dust
now and then
timelessness

Coal walkers, stiltwalkers
jugglers and thieves,
the rising of tides,
ebbing of smiles
frown, still we believe,
perne in a gyre
like ships
bob and weave
on eggshell seas.

Very nice very nice
to assume that a jury
of jesters is fated
to know or appease
when the veil is a thin
cloak between yang and yin,
sunset dawn bursting
dead or alive
in the soul's supernova,
our hearts survive.

 

[Guest]

Rain hits the asphalt

Wet on wet
bubbles up,
trapping
them inside tiny cages.

Over flowing gutters
carry, swiftly
down.

Sodden leaves
yellow, brown
and red,

all dead

do not stop
trapped raindrops.

They fall through
the grate,
slipping
into the murky down.

 

[Guest]

It is the small teardrop leaves
with tenacious hold
on spindly aspen fingers
that flashes out the last of color

and it is golden

 

[Guest]

The day turns blue
later still, it is black.

Dusk puts streetlights
on low glow.

It shines on the falling rain,
filters in beauty,
and shimmers the night.

 

[annaswirls]

after the squeeze
need to decomplress
held tight let go
wind pulls higher
stretching

chin tucked under turtleneck cardigin buttened up
to the top


I dont want this
I want skin on air
unfettered unafraid unfeeling and therefor all feeling

but that is not going to happen


magnets in a drawer
stored too close poles


flip


is sweat lodge a prime number?

 

[Guest]

Right over left,
move it over,
and bring it through.

"Doing hair!"
mock scoff.

"What if she's
a she?"

"If that is to be
then you will
braid hair
and I will
chase away the boys."

 

[Guest]

It is important
to know the time

exactly

GMT - 8
isn't good enough

Right now
this very minute
I need to know
what hour it is over there

If it's Monday 2:21 am
in Seattle
it's Tuesday
in Berlin or Cairo

But you're ahead
having a late breakfast
or an early lunch

My Yankee thoughts
imagine you
stereo-typically
drinking tea
at the proper hour
with crumpets and cream

but testosterone fueled
visions have you
here with me
fresh out the shower
wearing just your robe

Or isn't that want me
to believe
as you dash off
rushing away
never quite finishing
what we started

Time is important
right now
this very minute

exactly

time for me to go to bed

 

[Guest]

Red lights flash
on and off
(gratified through
eye seduction)

Go, go ~ but no
really stop
it's not what
she really wants

well
not today

 

[WickedEve]

god made me boundless
so I could pocket the world
like a relief marble
turned against my palm
thumbing the orient
that breathes yokoso
over the nail

but for swell views
oceans and towns
there is inflating

inflating and still more
till I'm sure it will float away

I ask god for string
then universe stroll
earth bobbing above
me gazing at streets
held hands and traffic jams

all expanding into orbit
and me
god-bound on a string

 

[tungtied2u]

Two hours

Two hours
that's all

the distance between us
but just as well
any closer
I would be in you

that's how large
my lust is for you

Two hours
so far

the minutes so many
one hundred and twenty
60 second
eternities

to a man
in love

Two hours
away

not long
before I find
this time alone
has changed

to ours
together

two
ours

 

[annaswirls]

twenty four hours

and I wonder what is

gossamer


and gossamer wings
it seems everyone hasthem
I wouldnt know it if they flew into my airspace

stirring my elusive butterflies
and doves

twenty or something hours
and I use cheesecloth or mosquito netting
something equally as practical and
inversely poetic

to wrap in tight
say good night again

where have you been

 

[Guest]

twenty four hours

and I wonder what is

gossamer


and gossamer wings
it seems everyone hasthem
I wouldnt know it if they flew into my airspace

stirring my elusive butterflies
and doves

twenty or something hours
and I use cheesecloth or mosquito netting
something equally as practical and
inversely poetic

to wrap in tight
say good night again

where have you been

Say nothing of gossamer
and gossamer wings,
you cannot catch fog
in cheesecloth
or mosquito netting.

Wait another 20 hours
and you won't have to.

The sun burns off water vapor,
leaves behind nothing,

until next time
it occurs,
revealing everything;
secrets etched
in bathroom mirrors.

 

[annaswirls]

Say nothing of gossamer
and gossamer wings,
you cannot catch fog
in cheesecloth
or mosquito netting.

Wait another 20 hours
and you won't have to.

The sun burns off water vapor,
leaves behind nothing,

until next time
it occurs,
revealing everything;
secrets etched
in bathroom mirrors.

catching fog
so much more poetic than catching


cheese and mosquitoes

claim the name cany play the game
who wants to be a poetess?

heat burns gtround crawling fog
turns it blows it cross my way
rain glues oak leaves
to my sunroof

hit 55 watch them fly

 

[annaswirls]

gratitude for holding my hand
pointing me to the place
I keep poems in my mind and
passion in my heart

fill my lungs with friendship
buoyant and floating high
exposed expanded exhumed
morning pulls out her pins
for deflation

sink to the bottom before I get carried away





okay

really
am I the only poet in the world who does not know
what gossamer means

I refuse to look it up

I feel like it is something I should have been born with
like building a nest, no one teaches the oriole how to pick the threads weave and preen


yet here I sit without these basic
fundamental
tools


perhaps some gene therapy can help

 

[Seattle1120]

i looked at my bank account today
and I saw
54 cents.

54 CENTS MAN!!!

i looked at my ira and I saw
$1.15
i’m 54 years old.
and i smoke camels
and
i
drink beer six days a week.
in spite of this, i vow that one day
i will be
a
yuppy.

 

[Seattle1120]

today I hit rock bottom
i was reading keats, and i put
it
down...

DOWN MAN!!!!

i put it down
to
listen
to
“the john & jeff show.”

 

[Seattle1120]

her heaving breasts heaved forward
and
hit
me
in the face
giving me a concussion
and
heartburn
they even poked my eye out

THEY POKED MY EYE OUT, MAN!!!

 

[Seattle1120]

i saw the greatest minds of my generation destroyed by madness.
and then, my friends,
they
died.

THEY DIED MAN!!!!

Yes, my friend…..

 

[Seattle1120]

41 Years ago
john kennedy died.
jackie woke up on a dallas day and
knew she’d
be married
again.
and oswald
oh man oswald don’t you know
don’t you know
don’t you know

IT WAS A GOVERNMENT PLAN????

YOU WERE A PATSY MAN!!!!

and then, my friends,
oswald died

yes he died...

 

[WickedEve]

brutal and suddenly poem

She wants me.

I'm totally aware of that fact
as I finger paint the bumper red,
dragging myself from beneath her mustang.

She says it's a good ride--
unlike me.

No, no.
I'm a midnight drive without headlights.
Crazy man, crazy.

You have my attention, baby.

I adjust myself,
fluff the oil streaked hairs on my chest,
then hobble away
to the squeal of approaching tires.

 

[Liar]

bygones b bygones
I know once my halftones
were drip drop dripping down
your collarbone
frames canvas

as if cyan
my fingerpaint digits
would swirl through
to touch your
magenta rushing heart

and draw
naivistic purple clouds
across your breast

but yellow your geist
and black my intentions
all faded
to watered grey

just when warning lights flared
"Toner Low"
and finally all
sputtered out
was a blank sheet
virginal deception
in white

as if as if...
bygones was bygones
and refilled carriages
fresh ink bleeding
could tattoo a stitch
to sew shut this rift
ever again

 

[Seattle1120]

the snow blankets the earth
and insulates the sound.

soft powdery pillows i lie in making angels
and then i stop
and look straight up
at the darkening sky and
become mesmorized at how peaceful
it is.

the low clearing surrounded by trees this
late ohio afternoon in december
is a sanctuary in my mind that i go to
and think of my family

 

[Seattle1120]

the waves crash against the rocks and cliffs
rolling around everywhere on the beach

that is us making love on that beach
that day in 1996 when your escape was complete
the bright northwest sun shining down on the
empty beach but for us
entangled in each others arms

that beach is filled with you
your sad and lonely blue eyes and
auburn colored hair looking at me wherever
i walk on that beach

it is a place i found a vision of myself and my life
and would go to from time to time to reconnect with
that spirit amongst the rocks and tall douglas firs in that
rain forest

it is a place where we fell in love because you felt
that same spirit the moment you stepped on that
beach and i can hear your voice in the distant surf
and see your eyes in the beautiful shells and stones that
wash ashore
like the ones you gave me

you are gone and have moved on
but you're still there on that beach
and my prayer is that someone else be touched as
deeply by your soul and inner beauty as i was
when they visit

 

[Seattle1120]

o wrightwood are you really part of the southern california landscape

only 70 miles due north of los angeles this little
town is the complete inverse of the city
of angels

clean quiet with four seasons
and no traffic
and no grafitti
and no smog

and when it snows as it did a few days ago
it is a island as the snow piles on the pines high up
and the setting sun peaks through the grey mountain clouds
to give them an orange hue

if i was a broken man with no home
and no money
and no friends
and no family
i would go there and live somewhere
in a tent because and give thanks to god
for this place because
i would at least know peace